"After The Markup first reported on how Ohlala regularly translated misleading far-right websites like The Gateway Pundit and Newsmax into Vietnamese, more than a dozen Vietnamese community members asked The Markup to dig further. They wanted to know why she was broadcasting in Vietnamese and why her videos were so heavily pro-Trump. Several community members also shared suspicions that she was a Russian agent..."
⭐ Last year's theme for our games was #criticalthinking because it's clear bad actors will continue to use mis/disinformation to influence and harm young people.
We'll do what we can to prevent this through the use of intentionally designed prosocial video games.
Here are some tips from our free game 'MushWhom?' for students
💡 Be Curious
💡 Be Questioning
💡 Be Open
The narrator (Critical Thinking Cat) shares these tips and how they apply both to the game & to real-life.
The earliest instance of a generative AI image from the 15th century. Note only the four fingers and the exaggerated index finger. Obviously no understanding of human anatomy!
“#SocialMedia has turned so many into public relations professionals who pursue likeability instead of #truth. That’s why people speak along pre-vetted party lines and silence their edgy ideas. First to others, later to themselves. When anything you say online can be instantly accessed with a Google search, the costs of independent thinking aren’t worth the benefits to most people.”
"Facebook users who deactivated their accounts for six weeks before the 2020 U.S. presidential election weeks may have been less likely to cast a vote for Trump [...]."
The #media problem: best be demarcated by the necessity to create better incentives for profitable media bus models *put pursuit of truth at the center of the value hierarchy -a challenge: given -lion’s share of the media IDU: become reliant on advertising as the sole profit engine. & with: #AI & advanced ad targeting capabilities, consumers have been relegated to pushing buttons while entrapped in our indiv. Skinner boxes-.
In one sense, Trump has done the world of intellectual inquiry a service: He is forcing those fighting disinformation to engage on a much broader front than just relying on critical thinking and a respect for evidence. #criticalthinking
Jewish students participating in pro-Palestine protests on their campuses would have valuable things to say about the alleged "rising antisemitism" at their schools. But the media is ignoring them.
Effective propaganda demands a captive audience. What happens when media giants decide what is news and what is advertised instead of governments?
Despite Chomsky's disdain for Walter Lippmann, they are both right.
Now, what happens if a grass roots movement arises to circumvent corporate control? Will there be an attempt to destroy these efforts? Threads anyone?
The term "Propaganda" gets an emotional response from many as connotations of state actors nefariously producing material to change people's minds yet the techniques used in propaganda are still used to this day in advertising. Using basic skills one can unwrap many of the tricks advertisers use to persuade people to buy their product.
People unable to separate Judaism from the State of Israel lack as much #CriticalThinking ability as people who cannot separate Hamas from Palestinians.
I’ll see your West Asian Bronze Age endogenous faith system and raise you a South Asian one.
Like, if you can’t separate Hinduism from #Tirupati, maybe you’re just Hindutva 🤨🤷🏻♂️
A lot of folks are taking off masks they didn’t know they were wearing and it’s not a good look.
Math education can lay the groundwork for problem-solving skills, analytical thinking, and even a rewarding career https://www.rand.org/pubs/articles/2024/math-teachers-efforts-can-really-add-up.html
"…many students falling behind in #math may not have access to experienced & knowledgeable teachers
…If students and teachers can understand why math is important, and that it’s primarily about #reasoning and #criticalThinking—not memorization—it becomes easier to see the big picture and retain that knowledge."
"The same 2020 Pew poll found that those US respondents who used social media the most, for example, were the least likely to correctly answer questions about topics in the news, like the Covid-19 pandemic and Donald Trump's impeachment. Only 17% of those who primarily got their news from social media had "high political knowledge", versus 45% who got their news from a news website or app.
Not only were the social media users less likely to know what was going on in the world – but they were more likely to have heard false, or unproven, claims and conspiracy theories. And they expressed less concern about these claims than other cohorts."
Sharpen critical thinking skills and power your brain—for life.
Master Your Mind will get your brain in shape by helping you cultivate the principles of critical thinking through perplexing puzzles, engaging exercises based on real-world scenarios, interesting case studies, and practical strategies.
If mapping arguments improves critical thinking, then argument mapping skills should correlate with critical thinking skills, right?
Alas, they didn't correlate among 115 Advanced Placement students across 4 high schools who mapped arguments for universal basic income (from a Douglas Murray article).